INSIDE TRAVEL.

Convention Bureau, Tourism Office Join Forces On International Quest

The Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau and the Chicago Office of Tourism have hired a retired Swissairofficial to help promote Chicago and the Midwest as a destination for international tourists.

J. Patrick O'Brien, Swissair's former general manager for the central United States, was named this week to the $84,000 consulting job in which he will serve as the city's director of international travel development.

His pay will come from $5 million the convention bureau and tourism department are getting to promote foreign tourism. The money comes from a 14.9 percent hotel-motel tax collected to fund bond payments on Comiskey Park, the 1993 McCormick Place expansion and tourism projects.

O'Brien is supposed to develop a "comprehensive program for expanding international business and leisure travel to Chicago."

The big growth at O'Hare International Airport, where domestic travel has been essentially flat for the past few years, has been in overseas markets. Last year, foreign arrivals were up more than 10 percent. Longer-range planes are now making it possible for international carriers to easily fly non-stop to Chicago.

"More and more people throughout the country and world recognize Chicago's appeal as a friendly, beautiful and accessible city," said Lois Weisberg, the city's commissioner of cultural affairs.

While O'Brien has the background to run an airline's operations, he has few apparent qualifications for promoting tourism. Unlike any one of dozens of international travel experts, he has far less background in developing travel programs.

Besides his airline work, his biggest qualification appears to be that he is chairman of the Chicago-Lucerne, Switzerland, Sister City Committee.

London lowdown: The millions of dollars that Richard Branson, chairman and chief executive of Virgin Atlantic Airways, received last month for selling 49 percent of the airline to Singapore Airlines must be burning a hole in his pocket.

Branson received $962.9 million for agreeing to link Virgin's European/U.S. route system with Singapore's Asian system.

Earlier this week, Virgin launched the biggest fare sale for travel to London seen on this side of the pond in many years. The airline said people could book travel to London for as little as $99 each way between New York, Boston and London. Unlike other ticket sales, Virgin said that it would allow passengers to change the return portion of their tickets for $150.

Virgin didn't leave Chicago out. The airline, which only began offering service between Chicago and London last November, is offering the flight for $238. Normally round-trip flights to London cost upwards of $600.

British Airways, which is in the fight of its life, has now matched that sale.

From Chicago, the fares, which are available for travel from Jan. 13 through March 31, allow passengers to book round-trip flights for $238. As an added inducement, BA said it has arranged for hotel accommodations starting at $25 per person per night.

Trendy title: Offices of chairman must be in style.

In September, Sears, Roebuck and Co. said it was creating an office of chairman and promoted two people to share the load with Chairman/CEO Arthur Martinez.

Now Ft. Worth-based AMR Corp., parent of American Airlines, says it is creating an office of chairman, and promoting long-time airline executive Robert Baker, 55, to vice chairman. He will share the office with Chairman/CEO Donald Carty. Carty is being blamed by some for the financial bath AMR took on its multimillion-dollar investment in Canadian Airlines, which was acquired last month by Air Canada.

Sam Skinner, former U.S. transportation secretary, Regional Transportation Authority chairman, U.S. attorney, etc., has been named to the board of Rosemont-based USFreightways Corp.

Philip J. Purcel, chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., has been named to the boards of American Airlines and its parent.